Saturday, June 30, 2012

The Berry Patch

back cover

inside front cover

I seem to be finding old books recently. Flea markets, book stores, yard sales are the locations of these finds. All at good prices. Most of what I have been picking up relate to old movies or tv shows from when I was a kid. The two pictured here are very much an exception to that, being from 1884 and well before television.

A local yard sale was featuring finds from an old house that had been closed up for 80 or so years. They had a box of paperback books like these for a dime apiece. I anticipating the writing to be horrible, but ten cents each? I wanted a couple at least. I chose two that I thought were in better condition and had better graphics.

I started reading one of the books. The writing feels stilted, as much of the writing from the time does, with the extra burden of mass produced hack work. I expected this and was not put off by it. The subject matter is what keeps me from enjoying it. Rather primitive form of a romance novel.

I've scanned the ads from Doris' Fortune to post here, but in doing so I have damaged the book, causing the cover to come off. The inside pages are stapled together, but the cover was glued on. 128 year old glue doesn't hold up to much handling. I am not going to post any interior scans from Lancaster's Choice.

For a larger view of any of these pages, click on the letter 'K' in the pic